Reston Man Plans To 'Stay Frosty' Skiing To North Pole For Charity

RESTON, VA — Len Forkas has done a lot of difficult things to raise money and awareness of children diagnosed with cancer. He’s run marathons, including two last weekend. He’s climbed mountains and ridden a bike across the U.S. — twice.

But, in just a few weeks, the 63-year-old Reston businessman may be tackling his most difficult challenge, skiing 60 miles across floating slabs of ice to the North Pole.

“This one's going to be unique in the respect that there's a lot of things that can go wrong,” Forkas said on Thursday. “I want to be very thoughtful and very deliberate about it. You have to really stay frosty.”

On March 31, Forkas will fly to the remote Norwegian village of Longyearbyen, where he’ll meet renowned polar guide Doug Stoup and the rest of the expedition team.

After a few days of preparation, a Russian jet will fly the group 600 miles to Barneo, a temporary camp established on a large piece of ice in the Arctic Ocean. A helicopter will then shuttle the three expedition members and two guides to another piece of ice about 60 nautical miles from the pole.

“From there we’ll don our gear, take our sleds and all of our equipment — our tents, our cooking equipment and so forth — and we'll head to the North Pole,” Forkas said. “We should be covering 10 miles a day.”

The harsh polar environment will present many physical obstacles for the skiers to overcome.

“When you're cross country skiing across the Arctic Ocean, you're effectively skiing on these big moving blocks of ice,” Forkas said. “When the ice collides, it creates these big piles of snow and pressure ridges. So, a big part of my training also has been doing CrossFit and strength training, because I have to be able to lift up my 80-pound sled and haul it over these big piles of ice.”

The skiers may also encounter breaks in the ice flow, creating open water leads preventing them from advancing.

“There may be times where one of our guides may have to put on a dry suit and swim to the next ice area and pull us along,” Forkas said. “All of our sleds are like boats, so we can jump on the top and they can pull us along.”

The skiers will also have to be on the lookout for polar bears.

“There are often polar bear tracks that you'll see, because they're hunting the seals in these open water leads, so that's one of the risks of this kind of this whole expedition,” he said.

Forkas first began seeking out physical obstacles to overcome about 20 years ago, when his 9-year-old son Matt was diagnosed with leukemia and undergoing chemotherapy.

“He couldn't go back to school, because they had to suppress his immune system, in order to get the chemicals to work,” Forkas said. “He was lonely and depressed, and I wanted to help him feel less lonely.”

Contacting Forestville Elementary in Great Falls, Forkas got permission to install a webcam inside his son’s classroom.

“He could talk to his friends, and they could check in with him and remind them that he hadn’t been forgotten,” Forkas said. "They saw his face balloon up from the steroids and lose hair. When he went back to school in the fall, every one of those kids in his class saw what happened to him, and they lived it in real time. They reminded him that he hadn't been forgotten, and that they wanted him back and that they missed him. It lifted his spirits.”

Matt eventually survived his bout with cancer. Now 30, he’s healthy and works with his father.

But Forkas never forgot the powerful connection the camera in the classroom had made between Matt and his classmates. He began taking on physical challenges to raise money for Hopecam, a nonprofit he started.

“Every time I run a marathon or climb a mountain or do a race, I always honor a child from Hopecam,” he said. “I call the kids. I give them the medals.I send them the shirts and I tell them, ‘Hey, when I was running, I was thinking about you and how brave you were.’ What it does, it really helps me. These kids motivate me, they hold me accountable to finish.”

Hopecam is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, which is a big deal for the nonproffit according to Brett Fox, Hopecam’s development director.

“We’re about to hit the 4,000 child mark,” she said. “We connect the kids with their classmates and their social circles. We do this by providing them with equipment and Wi-Fi access. About 71 percent of our kids qualify as low income. A lot of these kids don’t have their own Chromebooks or WI-FI at home, so we help to bridge that digital divide.”

As a nonprofit, Hopecam relies on donations, fundraisers like Forkas’ trip to the North Pole, and its annual 5K Run & Walk in Reston. More information is available online about the 20th anniversary 5K Run & Walk, which is scheduled for May 7.

Forkas’ goal for his 60-mile skiing trip to the North Pole is to raise $60,000 or $1,000 per mile.

“For all of our sponsors that donate at different tiers, we're going to have a flag that I'm going to plant at the North Pole with the Hopecam name and all of our sponsors to mark the moment, thank them and give recognition to them,” he said.

So far, Forkas has raised about a third of his $60,000 goal. Donations can be made on the Hopecam website.

Forkas will also be hosting a fundraising event Tuesday, March 28, from 7-9 p.m., at Vertical Rock, Basecamp Coffee located at 8461-D Leesburg Park in Tysons.